Public Bill Committee

[Ms Nadine Dorries in the Chair]

Nadine Dorries: As the Committee cannot consider the Bill until the House has agreed a money resolution, I call Afzal Khan to move that the Committee do now adjourn.

Afzal Khan: I beg to move, That the Committee do now adjourn.
Events have taken an interesting turn this week, notably with the Government’s defeat on Monday, which gave Parliament control of the Order Paper. The Government have officially lost control. Interestingly,  throughout the Brexit process, I have seen the Prime Minister raise the importance of respecting and upholding democracy.
I will remind the Committee of what my Bill sets out to do. It would fix the number of MPs at 650 and ensure that boundary changes include the 2 million people who have registered to vote since 2015. Maintaining the number of MPs and ensuring that boundaries have equal numbers of voters in each seat would guarantee free and fair elections, which are essential to the democratic process. At a time when democracy is thought to be under threat, achieving those objectives has never been more important. On that note, would the Minister care to provide an update, please?

Nadine Dorries: Does anyone wish to speak? Minister?

Chloe Smith: indicated dissent.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned till Wednesday 24 April at Ten o’clock.